The Hindu : New Delhi News : Inside delhi

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Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Inside delhi

Monsoon daze

Every year the civic bodies promise that flooding of roads during the monsoon would soon be a thing of the past. And it has remained just that – a promise. Heavy rain this past weekend brought along with it a reminder of this as well as all the familiar problems: water-logging, traffic hold-ups and a perfect setting for “road rage”.

Driving down to Dwarka from Connaught Place during a heavy downpour on Saturday evening, a friend dodged two sure-death collisions with a truck, was virtually honked on to the side walk by a much larger vehicle driven by a very impatient driver, and was then left stranded in a huge puddle of water that had collected at the end of the Dwarka flyover.

A journey that should normally have taken an hour took over two hours to cover and left her with a shooting blood pressure and a frayed ego. Of course what added insult to injury was the impatient driver of the big car yelling out: “Lady drivers in slow, small cars should be banned in the city.”

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

Heart and soul

When 19-year-old Rijul Kochhar got admission to Delhi University’s prestigious St. Stephen’s College last year, he realised his dream.

A wheelchair user, the young man did not lose any time in making creative use of his campus years. The history student joined hands with a few friends to start a magazine called SOUL, an acronym for “Stephanians On Universal Life”.

The fortnightly has college students on its editorial board and promotes creative writing and carries college and campus news.

“Students write about coming events in the college and on the campus. Creative writing includes writing short stories, poetry and articles on current affairs. It is managed completely by students,” says Rijul, a product of Doon School in Dehra Dun, who broke his neck and damaged his spine in an accident when he was in Class X.

At an orientation programme organised for the 2008-09 batch of differently-abled students in the University on Monday, Rijul shared his experience with newcomers. He also invited them to contribute to the magazine.

“Initially when we started out, the fortnightly was limited to St. Stephen’s College. But now we want to give it a pan-university look. And what better occasion than this to inform newcomers about the magazine and get them to write for it?” he adds.

Parul Sharma

One for the road

To reach out to travellers as well as holiday-makers, a one-year-old travel portal has now launched “Online car booking facility” for rental cars within the country.

TravelChaCha, a Delhi-based travel portal that provides flight and hotel bookings, historical tours and leisure holidays, empowers web users with advanced searches, instant access, automated booking process and online booking confirmations.

To handle queries round the clock including high-speed booking procedures, TravelChaCha has also incorporated innovative features.

Describing the portal as unique in more ways than one, TravelChaCha chief executive officer Sanjay Bhasin said the services would range from pick-ups at airports or railway stations and drop-offs at hotels to car bookings for daily use and tours by car to other cities for as many days as customers require.

“We have included all major cities and metros. We hope to offer rental cars in more than 200 cities in the coming days,” he added.

The booking process can be completed in four simple steps where travellers can also select the type of vehicles like air-conditioned, non-AC, small/large/premium.

Currently the rental cars are available in over a hundred cities across the country covering mostly tourist and business destinations.

Madhur Tankha

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